Outdoor Gallery

Steve Tyree

Made of Sheet Bronze and Steel

“Discipline”, by Steve Tyree, is an example of his methodology, which includes making models of clay, wire, or Styrofoam, making paper patterns from the models, and then transferring them to bronze sheets to be cut, bent, hammered into shape, and welded.

Steve was born the son of a freelance artist in Modesto, California, but grew up in the Hawaiian Islands, where he and his brothers engaged in many artistic pursuits, including painting, carving, and taxidermy. His interest in wildlife led him as an adult to Alaska and Florida, where he took up filming and photographing birds in particular. After moving to Oregon, he became interested in welding and sculpting the birds and wildlife he had studied. 

Chuck Fitzgerald

Made of Stainless Steel and Powder-Coated Steel

Chuck was inspired to create Baseball Player because of his father’s success playing semi-pro baseball and his own love for the game.

Chuck uses a multidisciplinary approach to explore natural forms and past experiences to create art. He earned a BFA degree from Northwest Missouri State University in 1975, studying with teachers such as Tom Sayre, Ken Nelson, Phillip VanVoorst and Robert Sunkel. Their influence allowed him to merge theoretical concepts about art with practical works including photographs, wooden wall reliefs and 3 dimensional sculptures.

Artist website

Bruce Holmes

Made of Steel Plate

Artist statement: The piece depicts the style of manipulating a two-dimensional form.

“The Run” is an attempt to take a hard material (in this case, ¾” steel) and make it into a smooth, fluid, softer appearing object. Mr. Holmes built a 50-ton hydraulic press to create the smooth curve in this piece. Due to the thickness of the steel, each fish weighs about 150 lbs., leading the artist to refer to it as “Art by the Pound.”

David Mudgett

Made of Rebar Rings

Artist’s statement: As with the majority of my works, the shapes of the materials at hand inspire the pieces. Eroded Sphere was originally inspired by a pile of rebar rings. Turning the rings into a sphere seemed like the most natural thing to do. Whether you’re looking through the Hubble telescope or an electron microscope, you can’t escape the fact that spheres dominate our universe. We are built of spheres, as is everything we see touch and feel. In the time it takes to read this statement millions of them will have been pulled from this piece in their quest to rejoin the collective that we call earth.

Artist website

Dan Klennert

Made of Found Metal Objects

On the surface, Dan Klennert’s found-object sculptures are remarkable for their scale and realism. However, looking deeper, his patchwork skeletons become a lasting testament to the craftsmanship of the artisans who made the original objects Klennert incorporates into his art.

Kevin Pettelle

Made of Bronze and Steel

Artist statement: The work is based upon contemplations of the human structure, its spirit and strength. The piece explores the dramatic compositional forces of the body using the sculptural elements of form, positive and negative space, balance and mass.

Artist website

Puyallup High School Glass and Metals Class

Made of Rebar, Metal, and Ceramic

Artists’ statement: Our statue is a patriotic statement. We are proud of our American heroes who represent every walk of life. They pitched in when a crisis arose.

Dan Klennert

Made of Recycled Metal

Artist statement: I spent some time in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I tap into the native spiritual energy that lives there. I do not do drugs, but I have channeled native spirits in my life, and that is what gave me the inspiration for the “Spirit of Recycling”. 

My love is preserving older pieces of metal that contain some history and were made by the hands of man. There is nothing like the natural high you get creating something out of your imagination using discarded items.

I got started in this career when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I was living in Seattle, and I’d take my red wagon and search through neighborhood junk piles. I found great stuff that way and fell in love with ‘scrounging’, or as we now know it, recycling. In school, I went to class mostly for art on Friday. I just loved it. As an adult, I’ve used my mechanical and welding skills to take what society once used and then discarded as junk, and instilled it with dignity and new meaning.

Artist Website

Sabah Al-Dhaher

Made of Cast Bronze

“Beginning” was originally carved in marble and later cast in bronze. It was inspired by Mr. Al-Dhaher’s son, who was born about 3 ½ months premature.

A native of Iraq, Mr. Al-Dhaher studied classical art at the Institute of Fine Arts in Basra. He fled Iraq in 1991, spent 2 ½ years in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia, arrived in the US as a political refugee, and settled in Seattle. His work consists of stone sculptures, paintings, and drawings, and may be found in both public and private collections throughout the Northwest. He teaches at the Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle.

Possibly as a response to his turbulent younger days, Mr. Al-Dhaher says: “Art is a thread that has sustained my spirit from childhood and through my intense struggle to survive during my life in Iraq.  Art is a place of expression and meditation.”

Artist Website

Chuck Fitzgerald

Made of Detail Board/Synthetic Materials

Artist statement: “Elegant Valley” represents things found in the Puyallup Valley. Some specifics are: our state insect (the dragonfly), cattails, daffodils, berries, ferns, and a frog. The piece reflects a ‘change’ in my forming techniques. I have merged from full 3-dimensional pieces such as huge insects and human body parts, to  gentle relief work.

Artist website